Pop Life

There’s something about pop culture translated through art that resonates with us as viewers. The innocuous and recognizable images of soup cans, Hollywood icons and cartoons thrown into a new context in the name of art can be both familiar and comforting as well as disturbing, jarring and controversial. But one thing is clear: We are undeniably drawn to art that mimics and appropriates aspects of our popular culture.

Contemporary artist Greg Gossel is no exception when it comes to tapping into our collective consciousness to make a statement. With a point of view that references the cartoonish quality of Lichtenstein and the high-meets-low culture collision of Warhol, Gossel confronts issues of race, gender roles, sex and violence through pop iconography in his arresting mix-media pieces. In his latest gallery show “Ignorance and Bliss,” which opens this Friday, December 14, at Gallery Three, images of Amazonian cartoon femme fatales wielding knives and children toting machine guns are juxtaposed by famous American heros like Martin Luther King and fictional anti-heros like Uncle Sam that visually discuss the perception of heroism, and the notions of good and evil in American culture. And you thought pop culture was just to be taken lightly...